Lady Trojans' charge ended Friday
Oct. 23—John Milledge softball continued the program's impressive Final Four streak, but fell short of the ultimate prize in Columbus late Friday.
The fifth-seeded Lady Trojans, one of eight teams battling it out for the GIAA Class AAA state championship, went 2-2 in the double-elimination bracket, losing out to No. 2 George Walton Academy in an 18-13 barn-burner Friday night.
What got JMA there was a run-rule 8-0 win over Strong Rock Christian in the opening round Thursday before falling to top-seeded Westfield 6-5 later that night. The Lady Trojans scratched and clawed to keep their season alive Friday, beating Brookstone 10-9 after coming back from a four-run deficit. That earned them the meeting with George Walton, which turned into a back-and-forth affair until the Lady Bulldogs seized control late.
That's nine years in a row now that John Milledge softball has ended the season as a Final Four team or better. The Lady Trojans (17-12) finished one spot above their playoff seeding. Head coach Wes Land loses a good core of seniors from this year's bunch. That's happened before though, and JMA always seems to find itself in the mix each year.
The Westfield Lady Hornets won the whole thing for an astonishing seventh consecutive year with a 30-3 record. Their three regular season losses came against Tattnall and George Walton, the teams that finished second and third, respectively. The championship bout between Westfield and Tattnall was a 1-0 final, marking the second-consecutive year that the two programs have battled to a one-score margin in the championship.
